Part 17 (2/2)

Toby had been feeling reasonably cheerful before this, but these words dispelled all his cheerful thoughts, and he was looking most disconsolate when Old Ben came into the dressing-tent.

”All ready are you, my boy?” said the old man, in his cheeriest voice.

”Well, that's good, an' you look as nice as possible. Now, remember what I told you last night, Toby, an' go in there to do your level best an'

make a name for yourself. Come out here with me an' wait for the young lady.”

These cheering words of Ben's did Toby as much good as Mr. Castle's had the reverse, and as he stepped out of the dressing-room to the place where the horses were being saddled Toby resolved that he would do his very best that afternoon, if for no other reason than to please his old friend.

Toby was not naturally what might be called a pretty boy, for his short red hair and his freckled face prevented any great display of beauty; but he was a good, honest-looking boy, and in his tasteful costume looked very nice indeed--so nice that, could Mrs. Treat have seen him just then, she would have been very proud of her handiwork and hugged him harder than ever.

He had been waiting but a few moments when Ella came from her dressing-room, and Toby was very much pleased when he saw by the expression of her face that she was perfectly satisfied with his appearance.

”We'll both do just as well as we can,” she whispered to him, ”and I know the people will like us, and make us come back after we get through. And if they do mamma says she'll give each one of us a gold dollar.”

She had taken hold of Toby's hand as she spoke, and her manner was so earnest and anxious that Toby was more excited than he ever had been about his _debut;_ and, had he gone into the ring just at that moment, the chances are that he would have surprised even his teacher by his riding.

”I'll do just as well as I can,” said Toby, in reply to his little companion, ”an' if we earn the dollars I'll have a hole bored in mine, an' you shall wear it around your neck to remember me by.”

”I'll remember you without that,” she whispered; ”and I'll give you mine, so that you shall have so much the more when you go to your home.”

There was no time for further conversation, for Mr. Castle entered just then to tell them that they must go in in another moment. The horses were all ready--a black one for Toby, and a white one for Ella--and they stood champing their bits and pawing the earth in their impatience until the silver bells with which they were decorated rung out quick, nervous little chimes that accorded very well with Toby's feelings.

Ella squeezed Toby's hand as they stood waiting for the curtain to be raised that they might enter, and he had just time to return it when the signal was given, and almost before he was aware of it they were standing in the ring, kissing their hands to the crowds that packed the enormous tent to its utmost capacity.

Thanks to the false announcement about the separation of the children in Europe and their reunion in this particular town, the applause was long and loud, and before it had died away Toby had time to recover a little from the queer feeling which this sea of heads gave him.

He had never seen such a crowd before, except as he had seen them as he walked around at the foot of the seats, and then they had simply looked like so many human beings; but as he saw them now from the ring they appeared like strange rows of heads without bodies, and he had hard work to keep from running back behind the curtain from whence he had come.

Mr. Castle acted as the ring-master this time, and after he had introduced them--very much after the fas.h.i.+on of the posters--and the clown had repeated some funny joke, the horses were led in, and they were a.s.sisted to mount.

”Don't mind the people at all,” said Mr. Castle, in a low voice, ”but ride just as if you were alone here with me.”

The music struck up, the horses cantered around the ring, and Toby had really started as a circus rider.

”Remember,” said Ella to him, in a low tone, just as the horses started, ”you told me that you would ride just as well as you could, and we must earn the dollars mamma promised.”

It seemed to Toby at first as if he could not stand up; but by the time they had ridden around the ring once, and Ella had again cautioned him against making any mistake, for the sake of the money which they were going to earn, he was calm and collected enough to carry out his part of the ”act” as well as if he had been simply taking a lesson.

The act consisted in their riding side by side, jumping over banners and through hoops covered with paper, and then the most difficult portion began.

The saddles were taken off the horses, and they were to ride first on one horse and then on the other, until they concluded their performance by riding twice around the ring side by side, standing on their horses, each one with a hand on the other's shoulder.

All this was successfully accomplished without a single error, and when they rode out of the ring the applause was so great as to leave no doubt but that they would be recalled, and thus earn the promised money.

In fact, they had hardly got inside the curtain when one of the attendants called to them, and before they had time even to speak to each other they were in the ring again, repeating the last portion of their act.

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